Assam: 193 declared foreigners forced into Bangladesh in two years, says Himanta Sarma

A total of 193 persons declared foreigners by Assam’s tribunals have been forced into Bangladesh in the last two years, according to data submitted by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the Assembly on Monday.

The figure includes an infant girl who was forced across the border with her mother, who had been declared a foreigner.

Of the 193 persons, 67 were “expelled” under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act. The Act empowers district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.

Overall, the Bharatiya Janata Party led-Assam government said that it had sent back 1,679 undocumented immigrants to Bangladesh between July 1, 2024 and June 30. The figure includes convicted foreign nationals, identified undocumented immigrants and those declared foreigners by tribunals.

The data was tabled by Sarma in response to a question from All India United Democratic Front MLA Badruddin Ajmal during the ongoing Assembly session.

The data was released on the same day that the Supreme Court set aside Gauhati High Court judgements that had declared 27 persons to be foreigners.

Remanding the cases to foreigners tribunals for fresh adjudication, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that determining citizenship and foreigner status carries a “high field of constitutional significance” and must be...

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